Slow news day folks, so I’ will post what I think is the most intersting piece of news coming our way today straight from Computex. Asus has officially unveiled two tablet devices , the Asus Eee Pad EP121 running Windows 7 and the Asus Eee Pad EP101TC running Windows CE 7. Both device are sltaes and can be hooked up to a hardware keybord via a nice lookgin dock mechanism (the result will look like a unlt-thin notebook). The EP121 features a 12 inch capacitive screen and Intel’s Core 2 Duo CULV processors the EP101TC has a 10 inch capacitive touchscreen and is powered by nVidia’s Tegra 2 SoC. Both devices feature a usb connector, HDMI output, front facing camera, SD-card slots, sim-card slot and will comme with a Stylus for handwwriting. The EP121 is said to have around 10 hours of battery life and a price range of 399$-499$ but both devices aren’t supposed to be availabe before Q1 2011. Check out the video after the break:

The XDA-Dev folks are hard at work on porting Android 2.2 aka Froyo to the much anticipated HTC EVO 4G which will ship in June 4th with Android 2.1 on board. Slapping Android 2.2 on the EVO 4G obviously means that the Sense UI won’t be present but this will be compensate by all the new features introduced in Froyo. So far nothing has been publicly made available but you can check out the blurry video below to see some hands-on proof that Froyo is actually running on the device:

Verizon’s inventory system has always been a gold mine for information on unreleased products and this have be proven again with th discovery of what seems like the Motorola Shadow (MOTMB810) listed in there. The official announcement shouldn’t be too far off I guess.

Two video samples of the recently announced Acer Stream Android handset have emerged on YouTube this weekend on YouTube and frankly they are disappointing. Even we you have keep in mind that we don’t know the exact camera setting used (compression level, sharpens..) and the fact that YouTube’s cmopression generally degrades the original quality of the videos, the quality isn’t up to what I expected from the device (5mpix camera with 720P camcorder feature). Check out both videos after the break:

Qik has issued an official statement today about the rumored £5 fee that HTC EVO 4G were supposedly required to pay to use the the software. It turns out that the basic services, like video chatting, will be free to use but the still unnanounced premium features will require a subscription fee. Here’s the official statement:

Well, there’re a number of rumors flying around that the 2-way Qik mobile video service will require a premium subscription. We wanted to clarify what that really means. Firstly, rest assured that the core Qik service that lets you communicate live from your phone to other phones, web and desktop will be FREE. Yes – this means that the core capability of doing 2-way Qik video chat will be FREE for Sprint EVO 4G users. The subscription fee will be for some advanced premium features that we are working on, which we will be announcing on June 4th – the day the amazing HTC EVO 4G phone launches.

So, tune back in on June 4th for a complete list of features of the new Qik along with the optional advanced premium features for you to enjoy!

I figured out that you might me interested in watching the Windows Phone 7 demo that took place on stage at the ReMIX event 2 days ago so here’s the 10 minutes long video a shot during the keynote. The device used is the same modified Samsung prototype that you saw in my hands-on video earlier. You’ll get to see the Zune hub in action and a couple of other things like a flight status search in Bing and some Bing Maps action. Check it out after the break:

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha unveiled that two new Droid handsets are expected to launch on Verizon this July. We already know about the Motorola Shadow thanks to the leaked Verizon flyer but the second handset is still unknown. He also confirmed that an updated version of the company’s Motoblur UI will be introduced before the end of the year.

The boys at Engadget have wrapped up a quick preview of SlingPlayer Mobile for Android today. So far the biggest news here is that this Android version seems to be the fastest ever created by Sling Media. The Software is still in early beta stage and lacks a few features. Here’s what Chris had to say:

Though we didn’t have another SlingPlayer-equipped device to compare, past experience suggests to us that Sling wasn’t lying — load times are, in fact, lower here than we’re used to. That’s especially true over WiFi, where it took as little as 1.5 seconds (give or take a tenth) from launch to live video (assuming you’d already entered your login information, of course). We found this version’s remote interface to be totally usable — it’s got its own unique feel, just like every other SlingPlayer flavor out there — but we were disappointed to find no obvious way to create favorite channels. In fact, beyond using the remote and changing aspect ratio and Slingbox input, there’s no other functionality whatsoever.

I was also noted that the software suffered from some instability on Android 2.2 but this will probably be fixed in the shipping version. Check out the video after the break:

Nothing is confirmed yet but according to AndroidGuy‘s source at Sprint the QIK video chat service will cost you $5 per month on top of the monthly bill and $10 premium that HTC EVO 4G users will have to pay to use the WIMAX network. Sounds a bit expensive for such a service no? Let’s wait for an official announced which should come in the coming days (the EVO 4G is launching on June 4th)

Here’s a 6 minutes long video overview of Nokia’s upcoming Symbian^3 smartphone the Nokia N8. You will get to see a walkthrough of the homescreen and some UI customization, integration of OVI maps and a whole bunch of other nice features like Flash in the browser.One interesting thing to not is that the devices seems to be running faster that what we have seen in the earlier promo videos back when the N8 was announced. but there’s still a sever lack of v-sync causing the noticable screen tearing you see when scrolling and panning. This is one thing that has to be fixed ASAP. The iPhone has shown us that a perfectly rendered UI is the minimum a user should expect when buying a high-end smartphone. This problem has ^plagued Windows Mobile for many and it is only now that Microsoft is finally natively “fixing” this issue with the release of Windows Phone 7 (I highly suggest you take a look at my live hands-on video of WP7 in action to see how it looks like). Check out the video after the break:

Well, well, T-Mobile has finally re-upped the ROM update for the HTC HD2 today and based on what they are saying it was taken down just because of server bandwidth issues on their side (!) and not issues with the ROM itself. So if you have already flashed this ROM earlier there’s no need to do anything. Here’s T-Mobile’s official statement:

Due to overwhelming demand, some customers experienced slow download times when attempting to access the HTC HD2 software update from the T-Mobile Web site. As a result, we temporarily removed the link from our Web site to ensure the best possible customer experience.

Now that we have solved our server issues, we are happy to announce that the software update for the HTC HD2 is now available on the T-Mobile Web site for customers to download and install on their HTC HD2 smartphone.

If you have already downloaded and installed the software update to their HTC HD2, please continue to use your device as normal. You do not need to reinstall the software.

Today Sling Media is for the first time showing SlingPlayer Mobile for Android, running on the HTC EVO 4G. The company is claiming that this version is the fastest (thanks to the EVO 4G’s WIMAX I guess). Not much else is know and not date of availability has been announced yet. Check out the video after the break:

During yesterday’s ReMIX Microsoft showed an interesting slide that didn’t go unnoticed by me ( you can see it above). According to IDC predictions 30Million Windows Phone 7 devices will be sold by the end of 2011 with 1.6 million of them only in France ( in 2008 only 18M WM licenses were sold and even less in 2009). This seems a lot especially for a new platform but the company is expecting that 40% of the handsets sold in 2011 will be smartphones (compared to only 14% in 2010) and hopes to grab a piece of the pie and generate money through the licensing fee and services integrated in WP7 (Zune music and movie downloads and 30% cut in the Marketplace). Just for comparison’s sake, Apple has sold 51,234,000 iPhones to date (and they are probably going to continue to sell a whole lot..).

UPDATE: Seems like there is some confusion going on right now. IDC is claiming that the slide is wrong and that their forecast for 2011 is 32 Million instead of the 30 Million quoted in the slide (and that it encompasses all Windows Mobile OS, not WP7 only). Splitting hairs much? eh? Let’s be logical here for a second please. Starting this fall WM6.X is as good as dead and MS logically estimated that out of the 32 Million estimated licenses sold only 2 Million would be WM6.X licenses (that’s why they estimated that 30 Million WP7 phones will be sold by the end of 2011). But it gets even better.. Microsoft issued a statement to please the IDC who seems a little bit pissed off over nothing:

“At the reMix conference in Paris, Microsoft presented a slide projecting the number of Windows Phone 7 phones to be sold in 2011. This slide was inaccurate, and intended to represent an analyst’s assessment of the market opportunity. We have not provided any sales forecasts for Windows Phone. Microsoft is introducing a fundamentally new design and experience with Windows Phone 7 in an effort to reposition our mobile business for the long-term.”

It didn’t take long for Acer to announce their new high-end Android device after it passed the FCC Tuesday. The Acer Stream is the company’s new Android 2.1 smartphone featuring a Qualcomm SnapDragon Chipset clocked at 1GHZ coupled with 512 Mb of RAM and 2gb of internal Flash. The screen is a 3.7″ WVGA (800×480) AMOLED panel (but there is a huge bezel!) and the 5Mpix camera is capable of shooting 720P videos. Other features included are: HD video playback on MP4, XVID and WMV-HD files, a Digital compass, GPS, FM Radio, HDMI port, UPnP & DNLA support, Micro-SD slot and Acer’s new UI. The device is 11.2mm thick. Check out the 22 minutes long hands-on video and press release below:

According to Verzion’s CEO the supply problems currently affecting the HTC Incredible are caused by an AMOLED panel shortage on Samsung’s side. The PenTile Matrix AMOLED found on the HTC Incredible (and all other HTC devices featuring AMOLED screens. You check out how the matrix looks like in my HTC Desire review) is actually build by Clairvoyante (which was acquired by Samsung 2 years ago) but isn’t the same AMOLED (or SuperAMOLED) tech that Samsung uses on its own headsets.

Here’s another Windows Phone 7 application present during the ReMIX event today. It is a news app developed for One of France’s largest newspaper, Le Figaro. This one seemed to be in the early stage of development (what you will see was developed in 15 days and you will notice that the panning transition stutters) but a pre-rendered video will give you taste of what it supposedly look like in a month according to the developer. Same as the majority of WP7 apps you get the Panoramic UI and pivot controls all warped in nice looking transitions. Check out the full video below:

A couple of new Windows Phone 7 applications were shown today during Microsoft’s ReMIX event and on of the is from AlloCiné (France’s largest movies and theater website). The app is still in Alpha stage but most of the functionalies were already up and running. Metro’s panoramic and pivot control are once again used here and give the user a nice way to navigate through all the services provide by the application. Geolocalisation is also used to improve search results and help booking for a ticket. As you will see throughout the demo multi-media feeds are also part of the package (movies trailers and videos, posters wiki etc). Check the video below:

Fresh from the ReMIX event comes this new video that I shot a couple of hours ago. It’s on the same Windows Phone 7 Samsung prototype handset that you saw in the previous video but this time you get to see one of the first game developed for the platform: Twin Blades developed by Press Start Studio. Some of you might have already heard about it because it’s already available on the iPhone and XBOX Live Arcade. The port to Windows Phone 7 was done in Two weeks by only one programmer (90% of the code is identical to the XBOX version thanks to XNA). The game will also include XBOX Live integration with achievements and will be available this fall when WP7 launches. Check out the full video after the break: